The Sorrow and the Pity

Wedding in Germany

Fallingbostel, May 1969

Dear children, even though your stomachs

are full, you can stand a little speech.

Thirty years ago,

when your mother and I married,

the sky was blue, but dark clouds

were already looming on the horizon:

the clouds of World War Two.

AIl of us gathered here today

hope with all our hearts

that you be spared such suffering.

Clermont-Ferrand: 134,000 residents

in the Puy-de-Dme region.

The capital of uvergne is 240 miles

from Paris and 37 miles from Vichy,

which was the capital of France

from 1940 to 1944.

Gergovie, a nearby Gallic town, used to be

the fortified town of Vercingtorix,

conquered by Julius Caesar.

father tells his children

about a more recent defeat.

In 1939, I was 27 years old.

I was the father of a large family,

so I hadn't been sent to the front.

The front was the Maginot Line.

I'd been sent to Montferrand,

near Clermont,

and my wife's dairywoman, Mrs. Michel,

had criticized me for not going to the front.

So after the rout,

I told her that there was no point

in me going to the front,

since the front came to me.

Was there anything other than courage

in the Resistance?

Of course. But the two emotions

I experienced the most frequently

were sorrow and pity.

The Colonel was a French action man,

the Major was a moderate.

The Captain was all for the diocese,

the Lieutenant couldn't stand the church.

THE SORROW AND THE PITY

Chronicle of a French city

under the Occupation

AIl these men made excellent Frenchmen.

Excellent soldiers who march in time.

Thinking that the Republic

is still the best thing going.

Now most of these strapping lads

don't share the same political views.

But they all agree,

no matter what their view...

Part 1:
THE COLLPSE

Two brothers, both local farmers,

live a few miles from Clermont.

They have many memories

of German occupation.

Is that your village?

That's where I was born.

I was born near that church there,

and later I lived

on the farm facing the school.

You can't help but love your country.

Did you think about it in Buchenwald?

Not much.

-You didn't?

-No.

-What did you think about?

-Surviving. That's it.

That's mainly what I thought about.

But I'm talking about me,

about how I saw things.

I'm not talking about those who...

There were some people who cried.

When I saw them cry,

I knew that they would never make it.

No way.

You had to think about yourself first.

and think about others after.

This politician also has

reasons to remember.

For me, it was an experience

that I will never forget.

This experience may have had

a few secondary effects,

but I don't believe

it has affected my attitude or behavior.

Has it not made you feel bitter

towards certain French people?

No, I wouldn't say that.

It showed me that there are

certain tendencies and habits,

which, when they are fired,

fed, or stimulated,

crop up like weeds,

and so we must always be on the defense.

We have to protect our youth

from this type of propaganda.

We have to talk to them about it

more than we talked about it

a generation or two ago.

The manager of the Philips company

also has reasons to remember.

As I was saying, his friends would ask me

why I joined the Resistance.

Why? Because going into a restaurant

and seeing Germans at a table,

and being told there's only four steaks

left for the Germans and none for us

was a little frustrating,

seeing as that steak

came from our cows in uvergne.

So it was our right to eat it

before giving it away.

That's my first reason.

My second reason was that the Germans

were forever imposing curfews.

It was, after all, a Nazi regime,

a totalitarian regime,

no matter how you look at it.

It was worth fighting for,

it was even worth dying for, rather than

to live as slaves. Hence, the Resistance.

Lasting peace is what we need.

There's nothing dumber than fighting.

That's what I think.

-Depends on what you're fighting for.

-Do you think they really knew?

-They didn't know?

-I doubt it.

There are a few fanatics who know why.

-Did you know why?

-Yes, I did.

-But you weren't a fanatic?

-No, but...

But when I went off to war in 1940...

I left in 1939, on September 2,

and I was sent to Modane.

What could I have done?

I knew nothing. I was going

to kill guys I'd never seen before,

who had never harmed me.

Later, they did harm us when they arrived

in France. They messed us up.

Even in moments of calm,

the soldiers are ready to fight.

Faced with the enemy,

they have the winning qualities of

patience, courage,

vigilance, determination,

and confidence.

In right-thinking circles,

in high society in Paris,

they sympathized with our soldiers,

whose troubles were unfortunately

nothing compared to what came later.

and consequently, during this period,

people sought to distract them,

to entertain them,

to relieve them from the boredom

of the Maginot Line,

where time passed at a snail's pace.

It must've been painfully boring.

So the right-thinking women

of the Parisian bourgeoisie

decided to form a committee

to entertain our valiant soldiers,

to provide them

with a more pleasant view.

The idea was to plant rosebushes

on the Maginot Line,

to make it look prettier,

to create a nicer atmosphere.

and there were people who donated

money towards these rosebushes,

so that our soldiers didn't have

to look at the horrid, concrete walls,

and to give them

a flowery environment in which to live.

It's pathetic when you think

about the awful things that came later.

The infantry is advancing at great intervals.

In Oisemont, the enemy has set fire

to the tanks of an oil factory.

It took two weeks in Poland.

We felt it would be just as quick in France,

as we were anxious to go home.

and, indeed,

we took France in just one month.

and onwards it goes. Next stop: Paris.

Naturally,

we attacked on several occasions,

but the hardest time was in Oing,

on the Belgian border.

The Belgian blockhaus weren't ready,

but we had to take position in them.

The Germans arrived equipped with tanks.

AIl that we had were machine guns.

They proceeded to kill everyone inside,

because it made such an easy target.

There were no battlements.

They hadn't even put up reinforced doors.

I'm telling you, we walked...

We withdrew,

and we must have walked

at least 20 miles,

without running across any troops.

Not one single troop.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

First of all, I'd like to emphasize

the fact that the German staff

was not expecting to achieve

such a quick, resounding success.

We soldiers, unlike Hitler,

were convinced that we were facing

the same adversary as in 1914-1918,

a determined, brave adversary,

prepared to fight to the bitter end.

Unfortunately, I must admit

that Hitler was right in this case.

He was always saying

how the French were incapable

of repeating their performance

in World War l,

and he never missed an opportunity

to add to this statement

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